Disputa del Sacramento
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| Disputa del Sacramento |
|---|
| Raphael , 1509-1510 |
| fresco |
| 500 × 770 cm |
| Raphael Rooms , Vatican Museums , Vatican City |
Disputa del Sacramento ("Dispute on the Sacrament") is the traditional title of one of the most famous paintings by Raphael . The large-scale wall fresco in the Stanza della Segnatura , today inside the Vatican Museums , was created in 1509/10 and is part of a Christian - humanistic image program that includes all four walls and the ceiling of the room . In this it represents theology as divinarum rerum cognitio (“knowledge of divine things”).
title
The title Disputa del Sacramento is secondary. The theologians' “ disputing ” about the “ host on the altar” was first mentioned by Giorgio Vasari in 1550 in a concise description of the picture, followed by other picture content. The title, which is still in use today, only gradually gained acceptance from the second third of the 17th century and is consistently criticized in the specialist literature.
history
Around the turn of the year 1508/09, Raphael received the order from Julius II (Pope 1503–1513) to collaborate and soon be in charge of the painting of the new living and office rooms in the Apostolic Palace , which are now called Raphael's Rooms, but which were previously Giovanni Antonio Bazzi had worked alongside others . Vasari referred to the room in which the disputa is located in 1550 as the Stanza della Segnatura , and this is what it is called to this day, but it is not certain whether this purpose as a meeting room of the papal legal commission already existed at the time of the painting or whether it was originally the papal library should take up what some of the iconography seems to indicate.
The spiritual world of the Stanza della Segnatura corresponds to that of other contemporary writings and images, but Raphael may have had advisors for the detailed design of his frescoes. Aegidius de Viterbo has recently been accepted as a direct or indirect source of inspiration.
description
In keeping with the architectural form of the room, the fresco comprises a wide semicircle over a low rectangle. The picture is divided into three horizontal planes, which by their curvature simulate an apsidal curve of the picture surface . They are separated from one another by two zones of sky blue and connected to one another by a vertical central axis. The area between the uppermost picture plane and the apparent apse apse fills a gold spreading downwards in rays.
On the cloud formation that marks the uppermost level of the picture, three angels float on each side of the central axis in poses that are rich in gestures.
The second cloud formation, interspersed with putti silhouettes like the first , forms a bench on which, characterized by its attributes , sit main witnesses of the old and new covenants and the old church , they too speak and gesticulate lively. On the left of the central axis there are Peter , Adam , John the Evangelist , David , Laurentius and Solomon or Judas Maccabeus (?), On the right of the axis Joshua (?), Stephen , Moses , James the Elder , Abraham and Paul .
On the lowest level, the paved earth or church floor, more than 40 people can be seen, some of whom are identifiable, some of whom are represented as types. Above them is left a church construction site, the right to recognize a powerful pillar base, probably allusions to the simultaneously arising St. Peter's Basilica , but also to the mystical nature of the Church . Next to the central axis sit on marble thrones to the right and left the four Latin church fathers Gregory the Great (with the facial features of Julius II), Hieronymus , Ambrosius and Augustine . Of the other people are u. a. Sixtus IV , Dante , Thomas Aquinas and Fra Angelico on the far left . The two bearded men immediately to the left and right of the altar are striking; the left, clad in cope , points with both outstretched arms to the monstrance, the right, clad in black, with arm and index finger to heaven, in correspondence with the gestures of Plato and Aristotle in the school of Athens opposite. Who these figures are supposed to represent is uncertain. Despite all the excitement and agitation of the figures, all attention is directed to the central axis - with the exception of a group of people in the left foreground who are reading a book and discussing it. A blond, curly-haired young man in blue and gold clothing asks her with a look and a gesture to face the middle.
This central axis connecting the planes of space and time is formed by God the Father in the uppermost golden field, with white hair and beard, square nimbus and globe; including in a circular glory Jesus Christ as the second person of the Trinity and at the same time as the Incarnate with the wounds of the cross on his chest and hands, flanked by the adoring Mother of God and the pointing Baptist John ; underneath in a sun disk, marking the geometric center of the overall picture, the dove of the Holy Spirit , who descends to the earth, surrounded by angel boys with four open books; Finally, underneath, separated by a strip of sky blue, the transformed host exposed for veneration in the monstrance on an ornately decorated altar , the Eucharistic body of Christ , the earthly-visible form of presence of the heavenly reality depicted above.
literature
- Heinrich Pfeiffer : On the iconography of Raphael's Disputa , Miscellanea Historiae Pontificiae 37, Rome 1975 ( partially digitized )
Individual evidence
- ↑ This Latin motto is added to that of the four allegorical female figures on the ceiling, which is located above the "Disputa". The figure above the School of Athens , the picture opposite the Disputa , has the motto Causarum cognitio (“Knowledge of the primary causes” - philosophy ), the figure above the representation of the cardinal virtues has the motto Ius suum unicuique tribuit (“You - the justice - gives everyone their right ”) and for the figure above the representation of Parnassus the motto Numine afflatur (“ You - poetry - is blown by the deity ”) (Pfeiffer, see lit., p. 30).
- ↑ Pfeiffer, p. 46ff.
- ↑ In the description of the pictures of the Vatican Museums , Trionfo della Religione - "Triumph of Religion" is suggested instead .
- ↑ Italian "room, room"
- ↑ Pfeiffer p. 25f.
- ↑ Pfeiffer passim
- ↑ Pfeiffer p. 64.
- ↑ Pfeiffer p. 58f.
- ↑ Pfeiffer (p. 69f.) Sees in them duplications of the apostles Peter and Paul, who also appear in the upper level.
Web links
- History and description (Vatican Museums, Italian)